TY - JOUR T1 - Association of <em>STAT4</em> polymorphism with systemic sclerosis in a Japanese population JF - Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases JO - Ann Rheum Dis SP - 1375 LP - 1376 DO - 10.1136/ard.2009.111310 VL - 68 IS - 8 AU - N Tsuchiya AU - A Kawasaki AU - M Hasegawa AU - M Fujimoto AU - K Takehara AU - Y Kawaguchi AU - M Kawamoto AU - M Hara AU - S Sato Y1 - 2009/08/01 UR - http://ard.bmj.com/content/68/8/1375.abstract N2 - Some susceptibility genes are shared by multiple autoimmune diseases. For example, the interferon regulatory factor 5 (IRF5) gene is associated with various autoimmune diseases including systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and systemic sclerosis (SSc).1–3 The signal transducer and activator of transcription 4 (STAT4) gene has been shown to be a susceptibility gene for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and SLE.4 5 STAT4 is a transcription factor involved in interleukin (IL)12 signalling in induction of interferon (IFN)γ production and T helper type 1 (Th1) cell differentiation, type I IFN signalling and IL23-induced IL17 production.6 An association of rs7574864 with SSc was recently reported by a large-scale case-control study in European populations.7 In the present study, we examined the association of a STAT4 intron 3 single nucleotide … ER -